The Egyptian Great Year And Christianity

January 08, 2002 by Corey Gilkes

There can be no understanding of the major religions of the world unless one has a working knowledge and an unbiased appreciation of the way the ancient pre-Christian beliefs saw the spiritual world. An impossible task for some religious types given the extent to which man took away the brain the Almighty gave them. The late Dr. JH Clarke never tired of reminding us that Europeans not only colonised people but also colonised people's understanding of history. Nowhere is that more evident than in religion. In this essay, the second of a three-part glimpse at Western Xianity from an Africentric perspective, the Kemetic/Egyptian language and development of the calendar will be examined in relation to the formulation of Judaism and Xianity. This is as vital in reconstructing the history of Africa as the archaeological and the Classical Greco-Roman historical accounts. Indeed, Charles Finch and Ivan Sertima argue that in the reconstruction of the history of African peoples wherever they are in the world, one must utilise the multidisciplinary approach.

Literal interpretations of the scripture are all but useless; most if not all sacred writings of that time were written in such a way that only the initiated could understand what the texts really meant. Often the texts did not speak of a particular time but were cleverly constructed moral teachings handed down from generation to generation. In Africa, along the Nile Valley, teachings also corresponded to the zodiacal time period where celestial observers divided an imaginary heavenly circle into twelve arcs. Within each arc all teachings corresponded to a particular zootype. We shall first examine this form of time reckoning so that we can better understand why certain biblical texts were written they way they were. Also, understanding the concept of the Kemetic/Egyptian Great Year and the Precession of the Equinoxes is crucial to understanding the history of the world and how we, like our ancestors, can traverse backwards and forwards through time in order to access knowledge.

THE GREAT YEAR

There are very, very few historians today who would [openly] admit that highly intelligent human societies are older than 7000 years. But the African invention of the 365 ¼ day calendar is one example that makes a mockery of the traditional views of Eurocentric academia. It comes as a surprise to many of us that our calendar, albeit with a few Roman alterations, is actually of Egyptian origin. Surprise, because unfortunately, the African contribution to such scientific achievements is still ignored and many textbooks still retain the misconception that the calendar was invented in Sumeria. Of course, Sumer is painted as a "Semitic"[read Caucasian] civilisation never mind that the Sumerians referred to themselves as "black heads". Never mind the fact that much of classical Africa's civilisations were already quite old before Sumeria or Europe had even entered into history. Also glossed over are the Classical Greek and Roman accounts that the Egyptians and Nubians had been charting the heavens from over 10,000 years. Dr Ben and Gerald Massey argued that in Egypt alone, African stargazers have been observing and recording movements in the heavens for at least 52,000 years. Evidence from the dating of erosion patterns of the Great Sphinx as well as the position of the pyramids in relation to the stars in Orion's belt, shows clearly that our accepted chronology of human history is totally inadequate. To begin to even appreciate the genius of our ancestors, we have no choice but honestly admit that what we think we know about the ancient world is actually very miniscule and much of that has been tainted by intellectual dishonesty, imperialistic designs, religious conservatism and outright racial bigotry.

Prof. Molefi Asante and Dr Finch maintain that unlike the Tigris-Euphrates region, the Nile Valley was ideally suited to the study of the celestial bodies. Egypt, a dry country, enjoyed clear nighttime skies for months on end, ideal for naked eye and telescopic observations of the stars and planets. Consequently, they were able to devise three calendars, stellar, lunar and solar. The lunar year of 354 days was well known to them and Dr Yosef ben-Jochannan, Sir James Frazer and Cheikh Anta Diop have shown that long before the dynastic period they had discovered the 360 day calendar which they retained even though they were well aware that this cycle lost a quarter of a day each year. Being practical people they used 360 days for the conventional year because it gave them convenient, whole number multiples by which the year could be sub-divided equally into twelve 30-day months, ten 36-day decans, 36 10-day weeks, etc. It is no coincidence that the 360-day solar year is the same number of degrees in a geometric circle. They knew that the earth was spherical and described an elliptical orbit around the sun. The Kemites later added five additional days which incidentally, are the roots of the Carnival traditions of the world.

The measurement of the 365-day solar year was close but not exact. It did, however, provide the impetus for two more precise measurements, the solar year and the sidereal or Sothic year. The Sothic year was obtained from a celestial occurrence known as the heliacal rising of the star Sirius [Greek Sothis, Kemetic Sepdet]. For most of the year at the latitude of Thebes in Upper Egypt [the southern half], Sirius is invisible in the southern heavens, but just before dawn at the summer solstice it suddenly appears. Within 20 days after its appearance the Nile floods its banks. This had a profound impact upon the minds of these early astronomers who likened this star to a sentry, a dog. They rounded off the length of the "tropical" year to 365¼ days, an almost exact mean between the solstitial and Sothic years.

What is significant about the Sothis calendar is its role in reconstructing Kemetic dynastic chronology because certain regnal years of several reigns through the course of Kemetic history were recorded by reference to this reign. It is known that the Kemetic New Year and the heliacal rising of Sirius coincided in 139 BCE, 1321BCE, 2781BCE, and 4241BCE which is when it was officially adopted. This was the exact same time that the Kemites began their Pharaonic dynasties in Kemet. By contrast, the much-touted Sumerian civilisation had not yet entered into history.

Space doesn't allow us to explore in detail this amazing phenomenon. However, with regard to Judaism and Christianity, the Egyptian Great Year is very significant. For Sirius to complete its elliptical orbit took roughly 26,000 years [the Great Year or Precession of the Equinoxes]. It cannot be exact because the earth's axis is tilted by 23½ degrees, which gives us two north poles, True North and Magnetic North. Because of the axial tilt the magnetic north pole wobbles like a top around True North as the earth makes its journey around the sun. This means the position of the equinoxes moves slightly every year against the background of stars located in the band of sky defined on earth by the Tropic of Cancer at 23½ degrees north of the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn at 23 ½ south of the equator. This causes the equinoxes to slip backward twenty minutes each year in a circular fashion.

The Kemites divided this 26,000 Great Year into twelve arcs of about 2160 years, each with its own star constellation that became its Sign. Since most of these signs were given animal forms, the later Greeks called this celestial band Zodiac from the term "zoion" [animal]. These signs were [tracing backwards from the opening of the Egyptian year], the Lion (Atum), the Scarab (Khepera), Twins (Set and Heru), the Bull (Ptah/Yusir), the Ram (Amen), the Fishes (In-tiu), the Water-Bringer (Menat the nurse and Hapi the Nile), the Goat (Mendes), the Archer (Set or Shu), the Scorpion (Serqet), the Scales (Ma'at/ Mwoere) and the Virgin Mother (Neith or Auset/Isis). As the spring equinox passed through a zodiacal sign, an age was inaugurated that was seen to symbolically, mythically and physically dominate earthly life during the 2160 years. The Kemites Pharaonic dynasties began in the Age of the Bull [circa 4241/4245 BCE], making Bull symbols and deities, Ptah and Yusir the dominant symbols of that age. When the spring equinox moved into the preceding age, that of the Ram [c 2200 BCE], Ram deity Amen and his city Waset [Thebes] dominated Kemetic cultural life. This was the age when the Hebrew appeared in history and, as the Old Testament shows, ram and lamb and shepherd imagery permeated their symbolic life. When the spring equinox moved into the Piscean Age [Fishes] - c. 68 BCE, the people of the lower Nile observed fish symbolism and it was within two centuries that Christianity, complete with fish symbols [note that the disciples were said to be fishermen] began its run.

Now, let us look at how this and another interesting phenomenon shaped what eventually became Judaism and Christianity.

THE OLD TESTAMENT

Most of us have been indoctrinated in the belief that Christianity and for that matter Judaism dropped onto mankind in the midst of an extremely sinful world. The historical reality is much more complicated than that. What we believe to be some new revolutionary dispensation beginning with Adam and crystallising with Jesus actually goes back to the dim mists of antiquity. Now, ancient Hebrew sacred writings were not meant to be interpreted literally; much of what comprises the Torah and the Old Testament were myths, allegorical proverbs and poems. Many of the names found in the OT were not referring to historical individuals but actually referred to whole tribes and communities. Indeed, most of the OT writings were simply poetic tales meant to convey the values of patriarchal Hebrew society. If we compare these myths with their Kemetic/Egyptian sources we can begin to explore the deeper meanings. Cheikh Anta Diop and Gerald Massey made this easier by comparing linguistic patterns; in a private conversation with Charles Finch, Diop showed how the Jewish scriptures borrowed extensively from its Egyptian parent. The deep symbolism and "typology" of the ancient Nile Valley sacred science provides us with the means to the complex process of understanding what the writers of the sacred Jewish and Christian texts may have wanted to convey to their devotees. It is not as simplistic as the priests and pastors make it out to be.

The Adam and Eve story for instance, is a prime example of age-old "typology" corrupted into an historical event. The first human is said to be Adam with his first consort being Eve [though in later Jewish literature he had a first wife named Lilith]. Now in many Jewish texts the names Adam and Eve are written using lowercase letters because these were not actual historical people. This Jewish myth - or rather this Jewish version of the myth - was simply their way of explaining the origins of man as well as explaining their cultural practices [such as the way women are to be regarded in that particular society]. We will attempt to look behind the literal images of such figures as Adam by applying Massey's method of linking biblical names with their Kemetic roots. Adam is said to be the first man in the image of God, the father of mankind, the completion of creation. He is also the Kemetic ATM/ATUM, defined conversely as the first god in the image of Man and mankind's father.

The root of ATM is TM [TEM/TUM], which has several meanings, i.e. "mankind", "people", "completion". ATUM is the complete Divine Man. A cognate root of TEM is DEM, which means, "to name", as the biblical Adam was the namer of animals. Note also with reference to the Great Year that Genesis represents not only the creation of the cosmos but also the beginning of a new cosmic time-cycle. The Great year begins in the Age of Leo [circa 10,000 BCE]; ATUM is the lion-faced one, who creates Shu and Tefnut, also represented in lion forms. Another parallel we should take note of is that in Hebrew adam is "adu-mah" (clay like/ made of clay); the Kemetic deity Khnum - who is shown as a Ram - is depicted sitting at a potters wheel fashioning the gods out of clay. Then we have Adam's consort Eve [Heb. CHAVVAH/HAVVAH] seduced by the serpent in the Tree of Life. The Kemetic Great Mother Serpent is HEFA; the name also means "fruit" - as in the fruit of Life. Our biblical Genesis is taken from the funerary rituals of Kemet. The parallels do not end there; the Garden of Eden [Heb. ADN], the mythical land where they are created is also represented as the great enclosure in religious motifs while in Kemetic, DEN means "enclosure". When Adam and Eve are cast out of Eden and settle in the land of Nod. Nod is NUD in Kemet ["outside of/away from"].

Their first two children, Cain and Abel, are the warring twins so prominent in the Kemetic Mysteries [Yusir/Set]. But more than that Cain/QAYIN [Heb], who strikes down and kills Abel, is identified with the Kemetic Set and the word QEN which means, "to strike down". Abel/HABL [Heb] is rendered in Egyptian as HAB-IR - "feast" or "rite"; we can see the parallel to Abel who offers a lamb to god in a ceremonial ritual. Note also that the Hebrew beliefs come at the time when the Kemetic Great Year's Age of the Ram which begins circa 2218 BCE.

THE GREAT FLOOD

Noah's Flood is also rich with parallels; the biblical Noah [Heb. NUACH] is the one who survives the Flood, who cultivates wine and becomes drunk. This identifies him with Yusir, sometimes depicted with a bunch of grapes and, as an agricultural deity is coloured green. Further, the Kemetic NU-AKH is the Nile flood that irrigates and cultivates fields. The ark, in one sense, the boats on the Nile, but in its celestial sense, is the barque of the moon that sails across the heavenly "flood" of the night sky. In its solar mythos, it is the solar boat on its daily course. NUH means "drunkenness" - Yusir was the spirit who possessed the grapes that became wine. Wine drinking was reserved for the Kemetic priests who, in their intoxicated state, would "commune" with the ntr [to this day alcohol is still referred to as "spirits"]. Noah's son Ham is Cham in Hebrew [pronounced HCHAM]; this is the individual who has caused so many generations of blacks to suffer some the most unspeakable horrors because it was said that the curse put on him by Noah was the curse of blackness. Well this black Hebrew Cham is Kam or Kem, the name the ancient Egyptians called themselves and this means "black", thus KMT/Kemet is the "land of the blacks". Noah's other sons Shem and Yaphet also have Kemetic roots. Shem [Heb. SEM] is the mythical and eponymous ancestor of the Semites [this linguistic term has mischievously become an ethnic term to describe the white Jews]

ABRAHAM

This, the supposed patriarch of the Hebrews, though he may or may not have been an actual historical figure can be linked to a Kemetic prototype like the other mythical characters. His story begins when he as Abram enters the Nile Valley around 2000-1900 BCE. Abraham is said to be the founder of the Semitic people - again, I must caution the reader that "Semitic" is a linguistic term and NOT ethnic as it is being used by Eurocentric media, scholarship, etc. Semitic is used as a euphemism for "Caucasian" regardless of the fact that Chaldea, the region where this Abram came from was populated by numerous ethnic and linguistic tribes. Another skimmed over point is that Hagar who bears Abraham's first son, is an Egyptian woman and her skin would therefore have more than a little "food colouring"

Nevertheless, according to the story, Abraham's first son is Ishmael, albeit by Hagar. Sarai, Abram's wife [and half-sister, thereby betraying yet another parallel with Egypt], becomes jealous of Hagar's ability to conceive and forces her to run away while pregnant with Ishmael into the desert. There, she is confronted by an angel who says: " you are with child and will bear a son. You shall name him Ishmael, because the Lord has heard of your affliction". The Arabs claim him as their progenitor. However, decoding his name with a Kemetic cipher is very revealing: Ishmael is YSMAAL in Hebrew which in Kemetic can be rendered YS-MAIR. YS means "place" and MAIR is "affliction". It doesn't end there because Hagar, in this same encounter, is told that Ishmael will become a "wild ass of a man" evoking the pre-Mosaic veneration of the Golden Ass Yiu, a type of Ra and Set.

Abraham himself is not without an Egyptian root given that the name, in Kemetic, means "the servant of Ra's will". AB [desire or will], Ra [the power of the Divine that causes the sun to shine], IM [fire/light], Hem [servant].

This connection with Ra is strengthened further with the name Isaac, which in Hebrew is YSAK. Isaac, according to the story, was to be burnt as an offering to God. The Kemetic YS [place], AKH [burnt offring] are the keys here. Also God stays the hand of Abraham at the last moment and provides a lamb; this indicates that the zodiacal calendar was in the Age of the Ram.

Other parallels are Ishmael and Isaac, the warring twins that feature prominently in Egyptian spiritual thought; Isaac's marriage to Rebecca - the brother-sister/cousin pairing of Yusir and Auset/Isis and then there is Jacob, both as "Jacob" [Kem. YA-QEB - the heavenly circuit of Ra]. Jacob changes his name to Israel: Kem YS-RA-IR - Ys (place), Ra (sun), IR (create), i.e. the place Ra created i.e. a place in Amenta, where souls, having been justified by Yusir, climb a ladder to Ra's boat. This is the source of the biblical Jacob's Ladder.

Then we come to Joseph. Now needless to say the biblical story is historicised mythology, copied from two ancient Kemetic legends. However, the picture becomes clearer when decoded; Joseph is YUSUPH in Hebrew, Jacob/Israel's favourite son. In Egyptian this name can be taken in three forms: YU-SEFI, YIU-SEFI, YU-SEP. YU means "to come", SEFI - "child/son", thus YU-SEFI is "the ever coming son", Heru/Horus the Christ [Karast], Horus who dawns every day as the morning Sun [of God]. YU is also YIU, the Golden Ass - whose visible emblem is the sun. Joseph [YIU-SIF] then, is the Son of YIU. Further, SEP is a name of Yusir so that YU-SEP is "Yusir/Osiris, the Coming One", who in this guise is really Heru/Horus.

All this points to the claim by Dr. Ben, Finch, Massey and Petrie that the pre-exodus Hebrews were largely Kemitic-Canaanite Set-worshippers. Set is the reverse of the life-giving Ra, the solar fire. Set is also the Golden Ass depicted as bearing the solar disk between his ears. This form of veneration fell out of favour when the Hyksos, the shepherd-kings who invaded and occupied Lower Egypt circa 1675 BCE, were finally expelled about 200 years later. Space does not permit the detailed exploration of all the coded names and locations found in the OT and there are many:- David, Solomon, Joshua, Miriam. However, the figure of Moses must be highlighted since this was a pivotal point in OT and Xian history.

MOSES

The historical Moses in all probability may have been a dissident Kemetic priest named Osarsiph. The name Moses [which was never Hebrew in the first place] in Hebrew is MUSHEH/MOSHE. The biblical Moshe 1) as an infant is concealed in the river among the reeds in an ark of bulrushes to escape the massacre of male children by "Pharaoh" 2) he is found in the "sea of reeds" by the Pharaoh's daughter 3) he becomes a type of Hebrew saviour. This model would be later modified and applied to the Christ figure. For the time being we will lift part of the veil of Moses to show the deeper aspects overlooked by the religious "literalists".

Moses/Moshe was concealed and taken out of the river after the Pharaonic massacre of Hebrew children. The event itself was largely fiction, but analyses of the names show us the same links to ancient Kemetic theosophical thoughts. In Egyptian his name has two forms: MU-SHA and/or MU-SAH. MU - "sea" or "pool" and SHA - "reeds" so that our biblical Moses is literally the Sea of Reeds, a papyrus swamp, but allegorically a type of Heru/Horus who in his infancy was hidden in a papyrus swamp to conceal him from his enemies. Heru is a Kemetic saviour and so is Moses. SAH means, "to draw from" and, according to the bible, "Pharaoh's" daughter took Moses from the Nile and adopted him [a romanticised fiction since Egypt, like many other African cultures traced lineage through the woman. There was no way that the very powerful priesthood, particularly during that 18th Dynasty would have allowed the Pharaoh's daughter to adopt a foreigner and a commoner at that!].

Moses' brother is Aaron [Heb AHRN], high priest and fashioner of the Golden Calf when Moses was on the mountaintop. Note the allusion here to the ancient mountain-worship still observed by some African communities [though this was also found in the Babylonian concepts of Marduk]. In Egyptian AH means "bull" and REN means "child" or "calf", therefore, Aaron himself is the Golden Calf, the youthful Celestial Bull from the zodiacal Taurean Age whose mother was the cow-eared Great Mother Hathor [still revered by Hindus]. Because of the equinoctial Precession, by the time of the Exodus the transition from the Age of the Bull to the Age of the Lamb had occurred but remnants of the ancien regime still lingered. Scholars argue that Moses' anger was directed not to the image of the Calf but toward the teaching ascribed to this avatar whose time had passed.

Mount Sinai is where Moses allegedly got the famous 10 Commandments, although six of these were actually lifted out of the Kemetic Admonitions of Ma'at/Mwoera. Remember, the historical Moses was an actual Kemetic priest and so would have known these Declarations without having to go up on some mountain. Now while the actual location of this mountain is unknown the story of the Lord appearing wrapped in fire on the summit while Moses was receiving the Laws is rich with meaning. Sinai in Hebrew is SYNY and in the Hebrew's parent language, Egyptian, SY means, "stone" while NY means, "fire". It is here that the Hebrews first learn of their god's name, Yahweh. Now Yahweh [YHVH] comes from the Kemetic YAH-WAH, YAH - " the Moon deity as Thoth, Khonsu or Yusir and YAH - "to increase" or "to grow". Jehovah is therefore the Increasing Moon, the youthful male Moon growing into the New Moon.

While lunar veneration was much older than that of the solar it still lingers in contemporary Africa and Asia in the form of traditional new moon festival and the Muslim calendar. This lunar worship was very strong in Canaan and under Moses, the lunar Yusir, YAH was installed as the worship of Yahweh. New worship, old god [and goddess since the moon was originally identified with the female].

Finally the name "Jew" itself is a coded reference to the lunar worship of the Hebrew's "pagan" past; "Jew" is YAHUDY in Hebrew, which is almost identical to YAHUDY, a Kemetic title for Thoth, and the principal lunar deity. Also pertinent is the fact that throughout the Old and New Testament there is a constant appearance of certain numbers that are sacred numbers in African sacred sciences - i.e. 13, 7, 40, etc. In fact, the New Testament is loaded with occult references to ancient Nile Valley mythologies and Wisdom Teachings so much so that it is almost impossible to extract actual events from the myth. Be that as it may, by applying the "Massey-Diop method" to the gospels, we can make sense of the texts we grew up hearing.

THE GREAT YEAR AND THE CHRISTIAN MYTH

It is not unusual that in the formation of a new religious system the creators attack and demonise the faiths that came before it even if these faiths was directly responsible for its very existence. Often the new faith is presented in such a way as to appear that it was created in isolation and/or represents the highest dispensation born in the midst of a world steeped in iniquity. The old faith is painted with a brush of evil and godlessness. Judaism, progeny of Kemet/Egypt and Babylon, branded its parents as demonic and oppressive. Christianity likewise, drew from ancestral Judaism and Kemet only what it wanted, rejected the rest and then burned its ancestral bridges. Its attempts were not thorough however; the "pagan" traces of Kemetic Wisdom Teachings and funerary rituals, the legacy of Bel and Mithra, Yusir and Auset, Zoroaster and Plato can be uncovered with the right keys. We will look at Xianity employing the methods Massey and Diop used to link Judaism to the stellar and lunar traditions of the ancient Nile Valley.

Charles Finch and John Jackson inform us that Gerald Massey traced Xianity's origins back some 10,000 years into inner Africa. It is not hard to see how Kemetic sacred science diffused to the emerging faith; the early Church found in Egypt a safe haven after being persecuted elsewhere in the Mediterranean [largely because of their own disruptive and subversive actions and not because of their beliefs as they like to tell us]. The early desert fathers like Anthony the Hermit and countless others, were the first to mould Xianity into shape. The Church's earliest saints, bishops and martyrs were African. The capital of Christendom up until the time of Constantine was Alexandria and the first two Xian churches were established on the island of Phillae on the Nile. Further, Egyptians and Ethiopians were the first people to convert to Xianity because they saw in it no difference to what they were worshipping all along.

As previously mentioned, the "New" Testament is filled with hidden references. The Kemetic Yusirian myth forms a bridge between Christianity and ancient Africa. Since the Yusirian Drama is well known and well documented, we will not go into detail but will only touch on the more outstanding points.

Yusir, as the principle of vegetation, is often depicted as a green-coloured deity. He sacrifices himself as the harvested grain, from which bread is made to be eaten as "real food" for regeneration. His "rebirth" occurs in new sprouts of the succeeding spring [in certain traditions Yusir "dies" from a scorpion sting, a reference to the harvest that occurs in the sign of Scorpio]. This sacrifice harks back to an earlier time when the Great Mother sacrificed herself [i.e. for the sins of the world] so that the community might live.

Yusir, the Great Ancestor, was identified with the grape, wine, the blood and spirit is also his blood and spirit. A Kemetic priestly ritual was to drink wine symbolising the blood of Yusir. Here we see the genesis of the Sader, the ritual mentioned in the Bible where Jesus shares bread and wine with his disciples and the origin of the Communion in Roman Xianity.

Yusir is the son and yet the consort of his mother Auset in much the same way that Jesus was the son yet consort of his mother Mary [the name "Mary" was also a title of Auset/Isis]. This also was the source of the son-mother and husband-wife/sister references we find in the Old Testament. Further, in the Drama Yusir was born in a cave to a Virgin mother; in the Book of Protevangelion, one of the gospels that was later suppressed by the Church, the same situation occurs with Jesus' mother Mary. Now Auset's name in Egyptian means "seat", "chapel", "womb" or "tomb" i.e. "cave". In most ancient African spiritual systems, the name "Mary/Maya, etc" means "the sea"; water was revered as an aspect of the Great Mother Goddess, a reference to the amniotic fluid that protects the child in the mother's womb. Thus "Mary" was more a symbolic title than a name. The symbolism becomes more apparent when one looks at the myth from its celestial origin. In late antiquity the sun reached its lowest point, the winter solstice, about Dec 22nd where it remained stationary in this position for about three days and then just after midnight on Dec 25th, the sun began its ascent on the ecliptic, reaching its zenith at the summer solstice on June 22nd. The beginning of its ascent on Dec 25th was, metaphorically its "birth" and since this ascent began in the deepest hour of darkness on the morning of Dec 25th, the sun was said to be born in a "cave".

In the pre-Xian era, the constellation Virgo, the Virgin, was position due east on the horizon as the sun started its ascent on Dec 25th. In other words the sun [of god] was "born of a Virgin in a cave" on Dec 25th. At the same time high in the western sky stood the constellation of Taurus and close to this sign lay another cluster called the Stable [Aurega]. The Three Wise men and the Star in the East is no less astronomical; in the book Pagan and Christian Creeds Edward Carpenter argues that this star was none other than Sirius, the Barker. According to him as the star stood on the southern meridian [directly overhead in that region] , to the right of it would lie in a line pointing at it, the three stars in the Orion's Belt. These stars were called the Three Kings. Prior to the Xian era the Kemetic New Year began at the summer solstice, coinciding with the flooding of the Nile and Sirius' heliacal rising. Sirius was then the herald of the new year and since Yusir was often identified with the Nile's fertilising efflux, Sirius was also Yusir's herald. The reader may also bear in mind that the entire Nativity scene is depicted upon the walls of the Temple of Amen at Luxor, first built around 1700 BCE, commemorating the birth of Heru - Yusir the Younger - in four vignettes. Thus the Nativity is as much a rebirth as it is a new birth.

These astronomical myths are our key to revealing the solar character of Jesus. After its Dec 25th "nativity", the sun's ascent on the ecliptic for the next three months represents its "infancy" and "childhood". The progressive lengthening of the day reveals the sun's "growth". At the spring equinox, the sun reaches the halfway point on the ecliptic, intersecting the celestial equator [the terrestrial equator projected into space] where day and night are perfectly equal. That the equinox had a profound impact upon the imagination of the ancients is shown by the fact that the Hebrews and Romans began their New Year at the vernal equinox. Jewish Pasach [Passover], and its derivative, Xian Easter, are both equinoctial celebrations as the sun "passes over" the celestial equator, forming a cross in the process. Thus the "sun" of God is said to be "crossified" [crucified], and since the sun remains in this position for three days, it was said to be crucified for three days [thus it "died" for three days]. Further, the celestial equator forms a broad arc through space that can be figuratively imaged as a "mount" or a "skull". Here is our biblical Mount Calvary.

The rising of Jesus from the dead can then be properly understood as the symbolic rising of the sun from the "dead", but this Son of God was originally Heru/Horus, Yusir the younger, resurrecting from his death at the hands of his evil brother Set. Set is the prototype of the Xian "Satan". Indeed, "Satan" is derived from SET-AN, AN being a mark of emphasis and also means " to come again", "to return"so that the Xian SAT-AN is "the greater manifestation of Set". Satan is popularly depicted as a red figure with the hooves, tail and horns of a goat. Set's colour, as the merciless sun, was red; the Greek god Pan was part goat and is represented as leading Zeus to the mountain top in much the same way that Jesus was led to the mountaintop by Satan. Satan was often depicted as a serpent, which was one of Set's zootypical images.

Jesus was called the Christ, from the Greek Christus. This Christus comes from the Kemetic KRST [Karast], the Anointed One, the titles of Yusir, Tehuti/Thoth, and Heru. The Jewish equivalent is Messiah from the Kemetic "MESSU" on the one hand and MES-IAH on the other. MES means "to give birth", "son". Horus had a title called "MES", making him "Horus the Son". MES-IAH then is "the son of YAH".

The dead Jesus was wrapped in bandages and laid in the tomb in much the same way that Yusir was anointed and mummified. Since wrapping corpses was practised among the Hebrews, we can see that they adopted this practise from their Kemetic sources. The story of Lazarus further betrays age-old sacred symbolism; Lazarus, the deceased brother of two mourning sisters is clearly identifiable with Yusir and his two sisters Auset and Neith who wail over his dead body. Jesus resurrects Lazarus who rises swathed in his linen bandages the same way the Yusir was resurrected by his son Heru. The etymology of Lazarus is no less revealing; Lazarus, broken up into L-AZAR-US, shows us the Semitic article for L is "al"[the], AZAR is AUSAR or YUSIR and the US may be IS or AS, "to call/summon" in the same way that Jesus called forth Lazarus from the tomb. Thus Lazarus is "the Yusir called"

There are many more parallels we can cite but the parallels are clear. The Drama of Yusir and his consort exerted profound influence upon the religions of Judauism, Christianity and, much later,I slam. This influence was also expressed in the art of the early Church; early icons of Jesus depicted a black, woolly-haired figure, often seated on the lap of his mother Mary. Some of these icons and statues were simply refashioned Kemetic deities of Auset/Isis that was carried to Europe by African sailors and Roman legions. Before the reader assumes that the story is wholly fictional, it should be noted that the biblical narratives, while largely allegorical, are woven loosely around historical events. Nonetheless, the core of the myth is still found in the heavens right above our heads and in the earth at our feet and around us. I implore the reader to explore the story further thereby unlocking the secrets that may guide us closer to the Divine.

In the next essay we will look a little more at the Xian myth as we examine the political aspects behind the historicising of these ancient Wisdom Teachings